Top 50 Golf Courses of Austria 2023

Thanks to the contributions of an enlarged group of panellists, our Austrian listings have been expanded from a Top 40 to a Top 50, with five courses dropping out from the old chart and 15 coming in to help define the new line-up. Only four courses remain in the same position during this revision and one of them is Adamstal, our national #1 which took over the top slot from Fontana in 2018.

Adamstal

The 18-hole Championship layout at Golf Club Adamstal – Franz Wittmann near Ramsauis is a Jeff Howes redesign from the late 1990s and it has graced our Continental Europe Top 100 over the last ten years, with the course currently residing at #85 in those standings. The Challenge Tour’s Euram Bank Open has been held here since 2018 so it’s a championship-calibre layout capable of testing the top professionals.

Earlier this year, a reviewer posted: “Wow. What a course. We played on a hot summer’s day and even for a fairly fit 60-year-old a buggy was essential. Every hole on this course could be described as a signature hole and the views are simply breathtakingly awesome. The condition of the course bearing in mind it’s covered in snow part of the year was superb. A must play if anywhere near.”

Linz St Florian

The course at Golf Club Linz St. Florian dropped out of the elite Austrian Top 10 echelon in 2018 but it now advances seven places to #9, the joint-highest ranking position it has held in our chart. This manicured parkland layout was originally designed by Donald Harradine in the mid-1970s then Hans-Georg Erhardt conducted a renovation on the Tillysburg Estate during the 1990s. 

Seefeld-Wildmoos

Soaring nine places up the chart to #10, the course at Golfclub Seefeld-Wildmoos near Innsbruck is another Donald Harradine production dating back half a century to the early 1970s. We understand the architect’s son Peter is due to carry out renovation work later this year (involving the creation of a couple of new irrigation lakes) and this should ensure the Harradine design legacy lives on for at least another fifty years.

Just last month our Alpine Correspondent Francois Gacougnolle wrote: “If you want to discover what excellent alpine golf can be, Seefeld-Wildmoos is a great place to start (where) everything must be earned it seems. Just getting there is an adventure as the entrance lies at the end of a 3-km ever-winding, narrow-access road the club shares with hikers most of the way. The clubhouse sits atop a hill some 200 metres from the parking lot. A friendly welcome, and then… the fun and surprises begin.”

Klagenfurt - Seltenheim

The Perry Dye-designed course at Golfclub Klagenfurt-Seltenheim occupied a Top 10 position for the first four biennial editions of our Austrian chart but it then fell from grace to #18 in 2016, dropping further down the rankings since then. It now enjoys a turnaround in fortunes, climbing eight spots to #15.

Older browsers of this site might remember seeing this course appear in the 'Peugeot Golf Guide of Europe’s Top 1000 Golf Courses' where it was awarded a mark of 17 out of 20 in the 2008/9 edition of the book, putting it among the top 25% of featured courses on the continent at that time.

Haugschlag

Rising eleven to #22, the Haugschlag course at the 36-hole Golfresort Haugschlag lies next to the border with the Czech Republic and it also lies in the shadow of its slightly shorter sibling, the Waldviertel course, which staged the Austrian Open three times in the mid-1990s. The Haugschlag saves the best until last at the short par three 18th, where the round concludes with a tee shot to an island green next to the clubhouse. 

Saalbach-Hinterglemm

Progressing a remarkable thirteen places to #25, the Kitzeinhorn course at Golfclub Zell am See-Kaprun Saalbach-Hinterglemm sits on the north bank of the Salzach River, named after one of the local mountain peaks. Donald Harradine laid out the original 27 holes at this 36-hole facility, nine of which are used for the Kitzeinhorn, along with another nine that were subsequently added by Hermann Schauer.

Ottenstein

The highest newcomer arrives at #24 and it’s the course at Diamond Club Ottenstein which is set between the villages of Niedergrünbach and Marbach im Felde in Lower Austria. The first nine holes of the Bird Course were designed by Keith Preston in 1991, with Hans-Georg Erhardt adding another 9-hole loop four years later. Six of the eighteen holes feature water hazards, adding another dimension to the golfing splendour at this fine golfing establishment.

To view the entire detailed list of our latest Top 50 Golf Courses of Austria click the link. View list here.

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Jim McCann

Editor

Top 100 Golf Courses